Ryld's eyes and made a show of relaxing. He said nothing.
"We require a boat," the weapons master said quietly. "You will take us east across the river, and you will tell no one of it."
The half-orc looked at him, considering it.
Ryld nicked the man's neck with his short sword, barely enough to draw a half-inch sliver of blood.
"I wasn't asking," the weapons master added, and the half-orc nodded. Within minutes they were on the boat. The horizon in front of them turned from black to a deep indigo. Halisstra had begun to grow accustomed to the sun, but Ryld still hated it, so they had been traveling at night. In order to make their arranged rendezvous with Danifae, they might have to continue through the morning, but Halisstra knew Ryld wouldn't complain.
"I think the ferryman expects us to pay him when we get to the other side," Ryld said in Low Drow, glancing at the half-orc who was pretending not to be staring at them. "Or do they breed half-orcs as slaves here too?"
At first Halisstra thought he was joking. It was hard to see his eyes with the cowl of his piwafwi pulled over his head. Halisstra wore her own hood the same way, but by the time they got to the midpoint in the wide river delta, the priestess realized that no one on any of the other boats was bothering to look at them and night-blind humans wouldn't be able to see them in the dark-not from a distance anyway. She slipped the hood off her head, eliciting an irritated scowl from Ryld, who kept his own cowl up.
"Why don't you ask him?" Halisstra said, nodding at the boatman. Ryld shook his head.
"Danifae is going to kill you," he said, his voice flat. "Is she?"
"I would," the weapons master replied. "She was your battle-captive for a long time, and now she isn't. Of course she will seek revenge for her years of bondage."
"Maybe," Halisstra had to admit, "but I don't think so."
"We don't get your kind around here much," the boatman blurted suddenly in heavily accented Low Drow.
The sound of the half-human, half-orc thing speaking the language of the dark elves made Halisstra's skin crawl. Ryld drew his short sword.
The boatman put up a hand, shaking, and said, "I mean no disrespect or anything. I was just saying . . ."
"You've seen drow before?" Halisstra asked then flashed a quick sentence in sign language: An extra hundred gold pieces if you forget all about us.
The half-orc had no reaction to the signed question. He didn't even seem to notice that she'd been trying to communicate.
"Sure," the boatman replied, "I've seen a drow or two. Not recently, but . . ." Halisstra shrugged off the boatman's answer and signed to Ryld, I think he wanted us to know he understood us, so we wouldn't say something that would make us want to kill him for hearing it.
That drew a smile from Ryld.
You can put your sword away, she added.
The weapons master sheathed his blade and said, "If he understands the sign, he should say so now or I will kill him."
The half-orc waved a hand and said, "No, no, sir. I swear to you. I didn't even know what you were doing. I just paddle, yes? Paddle? You don't even have to pay me."
"Pay you?" Ryld asked.
The half-orc looked away.
He heard us mention the temple, Ryld signed. It goes without saying that he can't be trusted.
Who can? Halisstra answered.
Not Danifae, the weapons master signed.
Eilistraee will guide us, she replied. Danifae has no goddess to guide her. Ryld nodded, though he made his continued skepticism plain.
They rode the rest of the way in silence, and soon they were at the other side of the river. Halisstra stepped off the boat, wading in inches deep water to the rocky riverbank. She looked back for Ryld, who was stepping toward the half-orc. The weapons master reached behind the ferryman, unsheathed Splitter, took off the half-orc's head, and resheathed his weapon in precisely the space of one of Halisstra's heartbeats. The head splashed into the water, and the weapons master kicked the body in after it.
Ryld turned to wade ashore, and Halisstra looked away into the blue-gray light of the dawn. She could hear his footsteps in the water then on the rocks behind her, but she didn't want to look at his face just then.
Danifae materialized on the deck of the ship of chaos and was instantly struck by how much